What is Bitcoin?

What is bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a digital currency created by an anonymous computer programmer or group of programmers, known as Satoshi Nakamoto to in 2009.

Nakamoto was concerned that traditional currencies were too reliant on the trustworthiness of banks to work properly.

Nakamoto proposed a digital currency, Bitcoin, that could serve as a medium of exchange without relying on any financial institutions or governments. The proposal was made in October 2008 in a paper published on the bitcoin web site which had been founded in August 2008.

The value of bitcoin is relative to physical currencies fluctuated wildly in the years following its introduction.

In August 2010, one bitcoin was worth $0.05(US), In May 2011, the bitcoin reached the peak of $30. In 2017 the value of bitcoin rose sharply from around $1200 in April, to more than $10,000 in November.

The sharp rise in bitcoin's value encouraged more intensive mining.

It was estimated in late 2017, that bitcoin mining consumed 0.14 percent of the worlds electricity production.